Vietnam grants amnesty to over 10,000 prisoners
HANOI - A total of 10,693 Vietnamese prisoners will be
freed in the next few days in a presidential amnesty to mark
national day celebrations on September 2, officials said on
Wednesday.
Sixty-one foreigners will benefit from the amnesty, which
was signed Tuesday by President Tran Duc Luong,
presidential office director Nguyen Canh Dinh told
reporters.
The group will include nationals from the United States,
Canada, France, Australia, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia and
China.
However deputy police minister General Le The Tiem said
the number of prisoners released this year is "was a
significant number in comparison to the number of
prisoners being held in the country."
Hanoi has never revealed the country's total prison
population.
The Vietnamese authorities have released several batches
of prisoners in amnesties granted during the past year to
mark historic events such as the 25th anniversary of the fall
of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces and the end of the
Vietnam War.
A total of 12,264 inmates were freed in April to mark the
occasion, including some 30 foreigners.
Since the beginning of the year a record 22,957 prisoners
have been given presidential amnesties.
The Vietnamese government has not indicated whether any
political prisoners will be released in the forthcoming
amnesty.
The communist government in Hanoi regularly asserts there
are no political prisoners in Vietnam, and that only those
who break the law are imprisoned.
However foreign diplomats believe there are a number of
political prisoners. A recent human rights report by the US
State Department estimated there were some 200 political
and religious prisoners languishing behind bars in Vietnam.
Tran Thi Cam, 74, whose Canadian daughter was
executed in April for drug trafficking, will be granted an
amnesty for health reasons, a foreign ministry official said,
Cam's release from Thanh Xuan prison, close to Hanoi, is
scheduled for September 1, the foreign ministry said.
Cam was arrested in April 1996 with her 44-year-old
Canadian daughter, Nguyen Thi Hiep, for trafficking 5.5
kilogrammes (12 pounds) of heroin.
The execution of Cam's daughter, who held Canadian
citizenship since 1982, on April 25 prompted the Canadian
goverment to impose diplomatic sanctions against Vietnam.
Hiep's mother, a Vietnamese national, was given a life
sentence.
The foreign ministry said 1,682 women would be freed in
the upcoming amnesty, bringing the total number of women
freed this year to 3,663.
According to official records 59.02 per cent of prisoners
released in the April amnesty have found work, while
40.76 per cent have found temporary employment. Only
0.22 per cent have committed new crimes.
In 1995, 3,000 prisoners were granted an amnesty. A
1998 amnesty of nearly 8,000 prisoners saw the release of
a number of leading political dissidents, including Doan
Viet Hoat and Nguyen Dan Que.
Agence France Presse - August 31, 2000.
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